SPORTS
TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2016
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HERMISTON
Youth Sports Roundup
Busses go wild in retirement
Bucks
win 13u
state title
Bucks survive late-
inning comeback
attempt to capture
USSSA title
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Eric Singer
School busses complete a lap during the trophy dash round at the Hermiston Super Oval on Saturday evening in Hermiston.
Hermiston Super Oval fi nds a hit with school bus races
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
Brycen Tarr and Dan Nelson
were at a bit of a crossroads.
Tarr, the owner of the Herm-
iston Super Oval since 2014, and
Nelson, the Operations Manager
at the track, were trying to think
of ideas for different types of races
and different types of entertainment
that could help boost attendance as
interest in small-town racing has
been on the decline in the Pacifi c
Northwest has been evident at the
track.
“It’s all about what can you do
to set yourself apart,” Nelson said
in an interview on Thursday.
That’s what led to a conversa-
tion early on a Saturday morning
during the summer of 2015. The
pair spent the several minute
dialogue rattling off outside of the
box ideas, beginning with Nelson
fi ring off his thought about a
minivan class. It was immediately
vetoed by Tarr, who then voiced a
thought about a motorhome race.
After the pair each decided against
it, the metaphorical light bulb went
off for Tarr’s next thought: school
bus races.
Both men liked the idea and
decided to move quickly on it,
which they followed through with.
“After that two minute conver-
See BUS RACES/2B
Staff photo by Eric Singer
School busses complete a lap during one of two fi ve-lap trophy
dash races at the Hermiston Super Oval on Saturday night in
Hermiston.
LACEY, Wash. — The Bucks
13u baseball team kicked off its
journey in the USSSA state tourna-
ment on Friday with a pair of big
wins to advance in the bracket. The
team then capped off the weekend
in an even better way, capturing
the AAA division championship on
Sunday afternoon with a 7-5 win
over Cascade Crush.
Tucker Zander started the game
on the mound for the Bucks and
pitched six strong innings while
allowing just three runs and eight
hits to pick up the win. Colby
Evens pitched the seventh inning
relief and allowed three hits and
two runs before slamming the door
close to save the win.
At the plate, Zander had a strong
game as well going a perfect 3-3
with three runs. Jimmy Jones
contributed two hits, two runs and
an RBI while Jordan DeGeer had a
two RBIs in the game.
The only time the Bucks trailed
in the game was when the Crush
scored one run in the top of the fi rst
inning before answering their total
with two runs in the bottom of the
frame to take a 2-1 lead. The Crush
tied the game at 2-2 in the top of
the second inning but then DeGeer
ripped a two-RBI single to center
See YOUTH ROUNDUP/2B
Little League
Outdoors
Pendleton,
Hermiston All-
Stars stay alive
on Monday
Goats getting shut out of wilderness
Blowout victories set up
Pendleton-Hermiston match-up
today in consolation bracket
East Oregonian
BURNS — The Pendleton 11/12-year-old
little league baseball team advanced in the
consolation bracket with relative ease on
Monday evening, defeating Baker 10-0 at the
District 3 tournament.
They were knocked into the consolation
bracket following a 13-0 loss to La Grande on
Sunday.
Pendleton allowed just three hits to Baker in
the game, as the pitching team of Kyle Liscom,
Aiden Gunter, Mason Morris, and Tucker
Pace combined for the fi ve innings of shutout
baseball, striking out 10 batters and walking
just two.
The fi rst two frames were a pitching duel as
neither team could get much going offensively.
Then in the third inning, Pendleton broke open
the fl ood gates as they sent nine batters to the
See LITTLE LEAGUE/2B
Packers at odds
with bighorn
conservationists
By MATT ENTRUP
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — As far as
locations for holding a national
convention go, the tiny eastern
Oregon town of Ukiah may
seem like an odd choice.
But to the 100 or so “heart-
beats” gathered for the North
American Pack Goat Associ-
ation’s annual rendezvous at a
campground on the fringe of
the John Day Wilderness, the
region lies at the heart of the
largest issue facing them and
their kind.
A growing number of goat
packing enthusiasts are coming
into confl ict with public land
managers over their rights to
access and enjoy areas that are
also home to bighorn sheep.
In eastern Oregon’s Blue
Mountains, a proposed buffer
zone around bighorn sheep
habitat would close the range to
goat packers entirely.
The reason, say those leading
the bighorn sheep conservation
Staff photo by Matt Entrup
Charlotte and Clay Zimmerman pose with a goat named
Mocha, which is owned by Curtis King, at the Noth Amer-
ican Packgoat Association national conference at Twin
Ponds south of Ukiah on Saturday. The Zimmermans own
and operate High Uinta Pack Goats in Evanston, Wyo.,
which is the only goat rental service in the country.
efforts, is pack goats could
potentially spread the bacteria
Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae
(sheep pneumonia).
It’s the greatest threat to
bighorn sheep populations, but
NAPGA co-founder Carolyn
Eddy of Eagle Creek said goat
packers are being unfairly
lumped in with domestic sheep
and goat farmers. It’s an issue
they say reaches beyond the
classifi cation of pack goats and
delves into the turbulent waters
of civil liberties and public land
usage.
Eddy said it’s a tough
situation “to have to fi ght an
organization that everybody
else loves.” It’s a fi ght NAPGA
has been slowly losing ground
in since its founding in 1999,
and as bighorn sheep are rein-
troduced to more areas the goat
packers’ territory shrinks.
“We’re not a danger to their
sheep,” Eddy said. “And we’ve
spent as much money and time
trying to prove that as they have
on the other side, and there just
isn’t any research that backs
(their claims) up.”
Eddy doesn’t deny that
domestic herds could easily
transmit sheep pneumonia to
native populations and should
be kept far apart, it’s the idea
that pack goats are nothing
more than livestock that seems
to be at the heart of confl ict.
When it comes to the rela-
tionship they have with their
owners, Clay Zimmerman of
Evanston, Wyoming, likens
pack goats to the family pooch.
“My goats are my family,
they’re my pets, they’re my
friends,” he said.
Zimmerman and his wife
Charlotte own and operate the
only pack goat rental service in
the country, High Uinta Pack
Goats, which they founded in
1994 after purchasing their fi rst
goats to make hiking easier on
See GOATS/2B
Sports shorts
Mariners pitcher out for season
SEATTLE (AP) — Mariners right-hander
Adrian Sampson needs surgery on his injured
right elbow and is expected to miss the
remainder of the season.
Sampson was scratched from
FACES his scheduled start in Detroit
on Thursday while tossing his
warmup pitches before the bottom
of the fi rst inning. Sampson felt
sudden discomfort in his elbow
and had to be pulled from the game
before throwing a single pitch.
Sampson said he had felt
Sampson
good during his pregame bullpen
session, but he tired late in the warmup and
began to feel like he couldn’t fi nish his pitches.
When he took the mound before the fi rst inning
in Detroit, his arm was sore and aching.
The injury requires surgery but it’s not a tear
of his ulnar collateral ligament, which would
have required Tommy John surgery.
“The national team is
over for me. It’s been
four fi nals, it’s not meant
for me. I tried. It was the
thing I wanted the most,
but I couldn’t get it, so I
think it’s over.“
— Lionel Messi
Argentinian soccer star telling
Argentine network TyC Sports
that he was done with interna-
tional competition for his country
following a disappointing show-
ing in the Copa America Finals,
a match they lost to Chile 4-2 on
penalty kicks.
Lindros headlines Hockey
Hall of Fame’s 2016 class
(AP) — Eric Lindros is fi nally a Hockey
Hall of Famer.
Lindros was elected Monday as part of the
2016 class that also features
Soviet star Sergei Makarov,
goaltender Rogie Vachon, and
the late coach and executive Pat
Quinn.
Because concussions and
other injuries cut his career short,
Lindros was passed over for the Hall of Fame
six previous times. But his Hart Trophy season
as NHL MVP with the Flyers in 1995 and his
865 points in 760 games ended up being too
much to keep him out.
Quinn, who died in November 2014, led
Lindros and Canada to the gold medal at the
2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and coached
the 1979-80 Flyers team that went a record 35
consecutive games without a loss.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1971 — Muhammad Ali
wins a four-year legal battle to
overturn his 1967 conviction
for draft evasion in an 8-0 vote
by the U.S. Supreme Court.
1997 — Evander Holyfi eld,
bleeding badly from his right
ear after being bitten by Mike
Tyson, retains the WBA heavy-
weight championship in Las
Vegas when Tyson is disquali-
fi ed after the third round.
2007 — The Portland Trail
Blazers choose Greg Oden
over Kevin Durant with the
No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.
2007 — Frank Thomas hit
his 500th home run to become
the 21st major leaguer to reach
the career mark.
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